1. Field of Invention
The field of this invention relates to an Edible Pet Chew.
2. Description of Related Arts
Domestic pets, primarily dogs, have an instinct to chew which keeps their teeth healthy, exercises their jaws and teeth and keeps teeth clean. “Pet Chew” products have been introduced to the market for many years to accommodate that instinctive urge to chew in a healthy direction.
“Pet Chews” are intended to be chewed by a pet/dog for an extended period of time, being distinguished from “pet treats”. “Pet treats” are intended to be chewed by a pet/dog for a relatively short period of time and digested.
One existing important category of a typical Edible “Pet Chew” is the ones that are made of animal skin, for example Rawhide/Porkhide sheet. Of these types of pet chew, “rawhide sheet” is a commonly used material which is thin, chewy, malleable and long-lasting for chewing. With these excellent properties/characteristics, “rawhide sheet” is extremely extensively used to produce dog chews in existing market creating thousands of “rawhide” dog chew products. One specific such pet chew is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,988,045 to Fisher. This pet chew includes a rolled and knotted sheet of rawhide resembling a bone shape. To make the bone shape, a sheet of wet rawhide is rolled into a cylindrical form, and while the rawhide is still wet, two the ends are knotted to simulate an animal joint. Then the rolled and knotted rawhide is dried and hardened.
Pet Chew consisting solely of rawhide/porkhide sheets may be chewed for sufficient long time and can be digested. However, many dogs find these pet chews lack of substantial flavor and scent. Accordingly, many dogs lose interest with these rawhide pet chews after a while and will at most only chew on them for short periods of time. Some existing products consisting solely of rawhide/porkhide are improved by adding additional flavorings, for example artificial peanut flavor, into the rawhide after it is hardened, but it can not improve the palatability of rawhide significantly.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,653 discloses an edible pet chew wrapping jerky with rawhide, so as to attract pets to chew. It finds a good way to make the pet chews made of rawhide/porkhide sheet quite attractive to pets/dogs, improving its palatability to pets. But since it still has a big member of rawhide/porkhide in the finished products as outer layer, it unfortunately is not thought to overcome the other two disadvantages that rawhide/porkhide have as described below.
The other two disadvantages of Pet Chew consisting of solely or partially rawhide/porkhide are as follows. Firstly, environmental pollution. It is concerned by many people that manufacture of rawhide is relatively unregulated industry. Producing the raw material of rawhide is known to use a bunch of chemicals and therefore generate evident pollution during its splitting, cleaning, washing and bleaching processes. The water system may also be harmed and polluted accordingly. Secondly, detrimental residues in rawhide from primary processing. When primarily processing rawhide, lime solution, NH4CL, H2O2, and NaOH may be used during its splitting, cleaning, washing and bleaching processes and may remain in some finished products more or less. These chemicals are not good for pets' health. For example, excessive H2O2 will cause the pets vomit or even worse symptom. What's more, heavy metals, for example lead may also remain in the rawhide and accumulate in the body, which cause serious damage to the pets' health. These concerns encourage a perception for pets/dogs owners to look for alternative ways to provide a “pet chew” for a pet without the use of rawhide/porkhide.
In another category of “pet treat”, there are animal meat product lines, typically, chicken jerky, pork jerky and beef jerky. It is known to all that pets, primarily dogs welcome meat jerky very much. The range may cover dried products, including animal meat, such as chicken, pork, beef, duck meat, goose, turkey meat, poultry meat, fish and animal pizzle, animal viscera, such as liver, lung, and heart, etc. Typical processing of meat jerky is, simply obtain meat from slaughtered animals, add additives (for example salt, sugar, preservatives), then dry it. However, one disadvantage of these jerky products is, after meat being obtained from animals, inherent “inner structure” of the raw meat is not modified or changed before making the finished meat products, and therefore finished products can only present in a form of the original raw meat. As a result, the finished products have limited shapes/forms and can not be formed into various shapes welcome by the pets or the pet owners. Some of these jerky products are made of sliced meat, being sliced thin enough looking like a “sheet” and then added with simple additives (for example salt, sugar). But these “sheets” do not have the essential properties/characteristics that “rawhide” has. These jerky sheets are fragile, crisp, and not chewy, unlike rawhide. Therefore manufacturers do not use them to form the finished products that “rawhide sheet” is always formed to. Another disadvantage is, these meat lines are always classified as “pet treat”, which means they are intended to be chewed by a pet/dog for a relatively short period of time before being fully digested, unlike “pet chews”.
Some other pet chew manufacturers do modify the inherent inner structure of raw meat by for example grinding before forming them into finished products. But in following manufacturing steps, they do not add proper additives (for example, proper thickeners, stabilizer, gelatinizer and emulsifier) into the ground meat material. Therefore the manufacturers do not use them to form a “sheet” like “rawhide” and they don't use them to make products that “rawhide” is always formed to. They even never think of or they don't know that ground “meat” composition with proper additives can be formed to a “sheet” simulating the characteristic and function of rawhide as a pet chew material.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,677,203 discloses an edible pet chew against U.S. Pat. No. 5,673,653, replacing the rawhide with a “plant based” material, so as to avoid pollution and health damage. However, since dogs are carnivorous, the plant based material does not attract pets much. Although flavoring can be added into the material, the edible pet chew is still less attractive to dogs since dogs do not prefer vegetal material. Furthermore, compared to plant based food, bodies of the pets, especially dogs, more fit nutrition provided by animal based food, and their digestive system more fits animal based food, such as meat. Therefore, the “plant based” edible pet chew is not considered to be so sufficient to pets' health. Another existing pet chew made from plant material is the one made from a molded wheat based material with glycerin, gelatin, monoglycerides of edible fatty acid and natural flavor. It also contains chlorophyll intending to improve dogs' breath. This molded plant material composite is molded into an elongated shape with one end shaped like a toothbrush head and an opposite end shaped like an epiphysis i.e. end of a long bone. However, this pet chew formed from main ingredients of plant also has the same foresaid disadvantages.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved Edible Pet Chew that is formed from “meat based material” sheet simulating the property and function of rawhide/porkhide sheet, which is chewy and long-lastingly chewing for pets/dogs. It is needed to overcomes the problems and disadvantages of the prior art.